Town Council - Regular Meeting

Call the meeting in order. It's 7 o'clock. You'll all rise for the pledges.

Remain standing for the invocation.

Heavenly Father, as we begin this town hall meeting, we acknowledge the importance of our time together.

to share ideas, address concerns, and make decisions that shape our community's future. We ask for your guidance so that our discussions remain respectful, our choices be grounded in fairness, and our actions serve the common good. Amen. Okay, the next item on the agenda is the adoption of the event agenda. Is there any corrections or additions to the agenda? If not, I entertain a motion to approve the agenda. So moved. All right, a second?

Second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? All right, it was passed. Approve of the minutes. Hopefully you've all read over the minutes. Yes. Any additions, deletions to the minutes? not will we entertain a motion to approve so moved thank you christina do i have a second second thank you michael all in favor say aye aye opposed all right and it's approved public comment Now is the time to hear from the public. We welcome your comments, which are very important to us. Note that all comments are limited to three minutes. As a reminder, please go to the podium to comment. Please give us your name, address, and your remarks to the chair. Note that we will not be entering into dialogue at this time. The purpose of this agenda item is for you, the public, to inform us, the council, about your views. Thank you. Any public comment?

Hi, I'm Judson Malone. I live at 216 South Ray Street in Georgetown. I wanted to just let you know that a group of organizations in the Kimmetown are planning a Discover Kimmetown event. It'll be October 17th. This is just to save the date notice. We'll be providing more detail, but Springboard, First State, the historic Georgetown Association with the fire station and the train station. We're trying to reach out to several of the merchants to open up their businesses for people to walk in and have not been familiar with what they might sell. We want it to be a festive event. They'll be the, hopefully the little toot rides. They have a brand new track now behind their fire station. That'll be good to let the community know about. The sphere of school, people will be there with obviously with tents and things in front of their cold storage building. It's getting to be the fall and they're going to be in the market for recruiting teachers and so this will be an excellent opportunity for them. The Pallet Village, we're having a celebration for our onyx, our service dog that everyone loves. And we're having hot dogs and things like that. So we're trying to line up some things. We're going to try to, I'll be talking to the police about public safety in terms of a route. We're not planning on a big centralized event in one place. We want it to spread out. We want people to walk about, but we want it to be safe. And then we'll be talking to the town if there's any any particular permit we need or anything like that. But anyway, more detail later, but it'll be a fun event and it'll be hopefully in October when the weather is decent and the flies have gone wherever they go. So that's it, thank you.

What'll be the hours?

10 to two.

10 to two, okay. Thank you.

I'm Maria Hammond. I live at 507 North Bedford Street. Been coming to these town council meetings for a long, long time. And if I can't come, I watch it online. But I was never more proud of my town than the last meeting. It's been a long time coming. The people in Georgetown have spoke for themselves and what they want for their town for a long time. And I finally feel like the town council that we have now, listen to them. And specifically Mr. Briggs and Mr. Barrett, the comments that you two made in reference to the little houses, that community that they want to put up, right on target. I just was, I didn't have, I looked on the town's website, I didn't see emails under administration with the town council I had Christine's and Tony's and Jean's but the rest of them are not listed so you can't use your personal email but I didn't see your utility bill if you still have the insert I don't pay the bills at our house I'll have to ask Jerry it's on there I'll ask him where he puts that and then and then I noticed that Mr. Briggs doesn't have anything under his name on the website or you, Angela. But anyway, I was never so more proud of my town people for speaking up for themselves and for the comments that was made in the vote that the town had. So thank you guys.

Thank you.

Hi, my name is Sunny Gianni. I live on extended Old Park Avenue. I'm just outside the city limits. I put the disclaimer, I don't live in the city. I do have some properties and I love this town. I've been coming like she is for about a decade and I've been talking about affordable housing and I'm trying to figure it out that if everybody has figured it out how you guys going to get us since you did repealing or whatever it was. The last meeting, is there anything else coming in place of it to build some more houses? We have to build houses. And the cost of the land is one of the issues, the time frame which it takes to do. And so if there is any land which city owns and wants to put it up, You have to do high density and you have to have cheap land. Construction cost is not going to change. It's going to stay the same. And I have a central park for Georgetown. People haven't found it yet. I'm still trying to cut the grass over there. So one of these days when it gets halfway decent, I'll have open house and maybe the city council and you guys can come over there and look at it and see if it's worthwhile project for the city to have about 10, 15 acres of green space in the middle of town. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else? Okay, we'll move on. Council members' comments. Let's start with Penuel.

It's good seeing everyone here this evening. It's great to see the monuments back on the circle. I've had a lot of great comments on that. Thank you, Chief, and Jean, and Angie, and Brian, and Valerie, and whoever else put that together. It was a team effort, but it's a great job. Love, Inc., they've opened their office at the First Baptist Church of Georgetown. I think that's gonna help. Also, I've been receiving phone calls about, I guess when the house there on North Bedford Street that hands out free food at like four o'clock or whatever. So I've talked to the police department and they're gonna keep a closer eye with the bikes coming across the street in front of people. I know a lady the other day was going up the,

north bedford and uh... to bikes went straight had to slam on the brakes if not it run right over middle care they're aware and uh... it's gonna be taken care of christina good evening anyone uh... everyone nice to see you here i'd like to extend a welcome to uh... doctor renee ds uh... the future president of principle of i think about it head school principal of the Aspira School that will be coming to Georgetown. And I believe that they are in the process of clearing out what is the historic Ice House, which is a, I'm happy to say, a historic designation which has taken a long time to achieve for that building in Kimmetown. Thank you.

Thank you. Michael.

Good seeing everyone tonight. I'm glad you could come out. First, I want to congratulate one of the chief homes of the new officer, John Burdell. He graduated last Thursday from the Delaware State Police Academy. Young, very energetic. He seems like he's excited to get started. Also, he did a great job getting sworn in on Friday over here at the courthouse. And also, as Chief Barrett or Councilman Barrett stated, the Moniums look good on the circle. But Tuesday night, September 1st at 530, the wreath laying for Chad Spicer. I'd like to pack the circle and show honor for him when he was killed in the line of duty back then. So that's all I have, Mayor.

Thank you. All right, now it's my turn. We had a little bit of miscommunication. But on the 14th of September, we're going to have the senior league girls team come, and we have proclamations for them to present to them. So hopefully they can all make it that night and be recognized for their hard work. We went to the game. We went to opening ceremonies and to the games, and they worked their butts off. It was an amazing sight to see there how hard they work. They worked as a team. The shortstop, I couldn't believe it. She had an arm on her, and she nailed every throw to first base. But there was a lot of talented girls on that team, so we're going to recognize them. And also, we're going to add Sun Behavioral to the agenda on the 14th. I went out and met the new CEO of Sun Behavioral. And like I told her, she got a lot of bad rap. coverage of some behavioral before and she said they're under a new administration and she would love to come and present the new some behavioral to Mayor and Council and the public and answer any questions that anybody has about that. Wednesday night we have another chamber function down to Millsboro from 4 to 8 at. the Lincoln Mercury dealership down there. One of the employees that works there, their daughter has a disease and for every test drive, they're going to donate $50. They're going to load chamber members in the car and it'll qualify as a test drive and raise some money for the foundation. I attended the Homewell Cares, the new business down here in town. It was a chamber function on the 19th. That was nice. As Michael already alluded to, we went to the police graduation up in Dover. It was an exciting night that night, because that's when the tornado struck, and we headed south, which was good. We didn't head north to eat. We headed south, so we just missed it. But it did a lot of damage up there. Last Friday, I had the honor to meet with John Kane, an aide to the governor. We had lunch at Georgetown Family Restaurant and we talked about the homeless. We talked about truck traffic in Georgetown and how we can deal with that. And we also talked about the Senate Bill 23 about affordable housing, so that was interesting. One thing I'd like to ask, Jean, on the website, can you please remove the video tour? Okay. If they need me to do one, I'll do one, but I just, I don't want to look at Mr. West anymore doing the video tour. So if you could take that off for me. And I want to start advertising. I want to form a finance committee individuals in town that will look on our budget, on our finances, and maybe come up with some ideas or different ways of investing our money, spending our money. But I think it's important to handle that now. We have a big project with the police department, $18 million. We're in debt. It seems like every year we're in the red at the end of the year. So I'd like to form a finance committee and look over different aspects, and maybe there's different ways we can look at our budget or spending. And we've got to form an affordable housing group to look at the repeal. I've had six people already volunteer to step up to the plate and would like to serve on the committee, so anyone that's interested can let me know if they want to serve on the committee. And I think that's it. So thank you. All right, next item is number seven, easement. State of Delaware Division of Facilities Management and Town of Georgetown elevated storage at SCI.

Members count this easement between the state of Delaware for lands adjacent to the Sussex Correctional Institute well and pump building. We've been working with them for several years to get this. This is a standard easement. It's been reviewed by the town solicitor. There is included in your packet an area that shows you a map of the permanent easement to be dedicated to the town of Georgetown. It's approximately 1.9791 acres. and there's also a legal description, pleasure of the mayor and council.

Any questions, council? If not, I'll entertain a motion. Make a motion to approve the easement.

So moved.

Thank you, Penuel. Do I have a second?

Second.

Thank you, Christina. all in favor say aye aye opposed all right passes all right item number eight a resolution uh 20 26-04 authorizing the submission of a capital request for consideration in the fiscal 2027 mini bond bill for elevated storage at sci

members council resolution twenty twenty six dash zero four is a resolution authorizing the preparation submission of an application to the delaware department health and social services division of public health drinking water state revolving fund program for participation in the drinking water bond bill grant program in order to receive up to one hundred thirty five thousand dollars in grant funds to design and permit the new elevated water storage tank within the town boundaries This is to be placed at the Sussex Correctional Institute easement that you just approved.

At one point in time, were we going to use ARPA funds for a water tower out there?

If we had leftovers, we did not have, between the pump station rehabilitations and AMI.

Okay. Okay. All right. All right. Council, any questions? If not, somebody make a motion to approve the resolution 2026-04.

Make a motion to approve the resolution 2026-04.

Thank you, Michael. Do I have a second?

Second.

Okay. It's a tie.

All right. All in favor say aye.

Aye. Opposed? All right. Resolution passed. All right. Item number nine, first reading of the ordinance. James Place, we heard this at a public hearing at our last meeting. They want to take the parcel out on across from Gordy Street, 644 North Bedford Street. Zoning map from UR1 to residential plan community RPC. Overlay is superimposed over the UR1. Tax parcel 135, map 14, parcel 87. Jean?

members of council this is ordinance 2026-05 whereas the town council of the town of georgetown received an application to amend the zoning map of the town of georgetown from ur1 to rpc overlay in ur1 for the property located at 644 north bedford street identified as sussex county tax map and parcel 135 14.00 And whereas the Planning Commission of the Town of Georgetown has reviewed the application as recommended approval by the Town Council. And whereas the Town Council of the Town of Georgetown held an advertised public hearing on August 10, 2026 to allow for public comment on the application and has considered any public comments received. whereas the Town Council finds the proposed use is compatible with the Town of Georgetown Comprehensive Plan and the permitted uses described for the area are consistent with the intents of Chapter 230 Zoning Article... 11a RPC residential plan community and whereas the town council finds the proposed use is compatible with existing adjoining uses and whereas it is the opinion of the town council of the town of Georgetown that the amendment will not have an adverse effect on adjacent properties and is in the spirit of the Georgetown zoning code and should be approved. Now therefore the town council, the town of Georgetown hereby ordain section one, the Georgetown zoning map be amended by zoning the property located at 644 North Bedford Street identified as Sussex County tax map 135-14.00-87.00 with approximately 21.92 plus or minus acres to a classification of RPC over UR1, residential planned community over urban residential. Section 2, the Town of Georgetown approves the RPC concept as presented during the public hearing held before the Town Council on August 10, 2026. Section 3, this ordinance shall take effect immediately upon its adoption by a majority of the vote of all members of the Town Council of the Town of Georgetown. adopted by the town council of the town of Georgetown, Delaware on the 14th day of September, AD 2026. This is the first reading. There's no formal action tonight. It'll take place at the next meeting.

All right, thank you. Next item, departmental reports. Jean Dvornik.

Okay, members of council, just a couple items for you tonight. Police and Public Works Facility, the concrete has been poured up on the screen. You see the concrete slab to the right, which is the gray, and then the second area to be poured, which is the yellow. The middle picture is actually looking after both sections have been poured and we did take delivery of the steel last week street projects east north street this is north road avenue to kimmy street is under review we're working with first state community action agency on that clover drive south bedford street to meadow run that's been scheduled east laurel street moving from north race street to layton avenue is in process lee avenue covering west north street to alfred street's been completed and edward street from dupont boulevard to margaret street's been completed with respect to street lighting projects, Lynch Lane, two 100 watt equivalent replacements from high pressure sodium to LED. That lighting agreement has been executed so the work should be taking place anytime now. And Old Park Avenue for new street lighting from 21480 Old Park Avenue to the cul-de-sac. Efforts with Verizon construction continue. All the poles beyond 21480 belong to Verizon so they have to be coordinated with the construction. And general items, supportive housing issue committee will meet this Wednesday, August 26th, 4 p.m. here at Town Hall. The fiscal year 2026 great fund committee will meet Thursday, August 27th, 4 p.m. here at Town Hall. Sussex County Association of Towns has its first meeting of the new season Wednesday, September 2nd, 6 p.m. That's hosted by Milford. Sussex County Association of Town Steering Committee meeting will be on Friday, September 4th, 9 a.m. at First State Community Action Agency. And a reminder, town offices will be closed on Monday, September 7th, and Delaware League of Local Governments continues on its summer break until September. And thank you to Councilman Briggs for the reminder on the Chad Spicer Maloney. There will also be a reminder going out later. That's all I have.

All right. Thank you, Gene. All right. Any other questions for Gene's report?

Yes, I have a question for Jean's report. I meet with Jean on Fridays at 1.30 to bring all the issues that I receive during the week around the community and I wanted to know at what point do you and uh the town manager get together to discuss ongoing issues that are reported during the week to the town manager or should that be in uh for procedural purposes should that be a memo to all of the council members uh on activities and issues that come up during the week in other words do you all meet no Okay, so how does the town manager know what you're up to?

By email.

Oh, so okay.

Yeah, yeah. Good. Yeah.

Okay. Yeah. Good. So have you all met on the budget yet for the 2027?

Yeah, we met.

Yeah, and we're in the 2027 budget year now. 2028 will start in December. There's a whole timeline that will come out.

Yeah.

Okay.

Good. All right.

Somebody's talking. Yeah.

I didn't know. I just brought up a suggestion, if I can right now, about the times of town council meetings. If we could do it at an earlier time, besides 7, perhaps maybe 6.30 for the regular meeting. And then if we had to have a public hearing, it could be at 6 o'clock. I don't know if everyone is in favor of that. I just know that, you know, with the winter months coming up, it gets dark so early. And sometimes it would be nice to get out of a meeting earlier. And I'm retired, so it's pretty good when I can meet. I don't have a bunch of time clock. Huh?

It doesn't matter to me. I signed up for it, so whatever time you tell me to be here, I'll be here.

Penual. I know penual.

6.30 is the earliest I can be here.

Okay.

I do work. So do I.

You have to work. Okay. That's good. That's good. All right. I think that's it. Huh? Yeah. I would say effective enough meeting.

Do we need to make an emotion about it?

We need to make a motion and vote or you would.

I make a motion to start having the town council meetings at 630 and public hearing at 6 o'clock or 615, whatever we need to do.

OK, do I have a second?

Second.

Second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? It's set then. OK. Do I have a motion to adjourn?

So moved.

Do I have a second?

Second.

All right. All in favor?

Aye. Aye.

Thank you. Opposed? No.